What is Real Time Incident Reporting?

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Workplace incidents can be defined as any event that may affect safety margins. For instance, a safety incident, such as a near miss, may require companies to review the event and identify what went wrong to ensure it doesn’t repeat.

Incident reporting is an important practice to ensure the safety of all employees within the company. In case of an incident, employees need to report it immediately, in real time, so that EHS teams have actionable data to work with.

Real time incident reporting is generally defined as the practice of reporting an event that occurs, or is happening, to relevant safety personnel. Often, employees can send real time incident reports using a safety app, or data can be gathered through AI monitoring tools.

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The Importance of Real Time Incident Reporting

Real time incident reporting is of extreme importance in modern workplaces. Real time reporting helps employees work closely with EHS teams to improve safety in the workplace. 

Frontline employees are able to provide relevant details about the event to responsible authorities, even taking photos and including annotations for increased detail. 

The primary reason why real time incident reporting is so important is because as time passes, there’s an increased risk that an employee may not remember all the details about it. They may end up omitting critical details from their report that could affect the company’s investigation.

In most cases, safety events usually transpire due to a series of actions that occur in a series. It’s vitally important for employees to detail this series of events, as it may help safety teams better understand what happened. 

More importantly, real time incident reporting can allow companies to take swift action, including offering aid to affected employees. In certain cases, especially serious injuries, immediate reporting can help companies take action quicker. 

In case the company has CCTV footage, real time incident reports make it easy for them to understand exactly how the events transpired, while also reviewing the video evidence. This allows them to glean important insights related to the causality of events, including any contributing factors. 

How to Enforce Real Time Incident Reporting in the Workplace

There are several steps that companies can take to enforce real time incident reporting in the workplace.

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Educate Employees About its Importance

Frontline employees can play an integral role in reporting incidents in real time. It’s imperative for companies to educate employees about the importance of real time incident reporting.

This means conducting training sessions and discussions with employees about what to do, how to do it, and why they must report the incident. 

In many cases, employees choose not to report incidents such as near misses because they fear the employer’s wrath. Employers need to encourage their frontline employees to report such incidents, or even create an incentive program. 

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Train Employees on Reporting

Companies must also train employees on how to report real time incidents. For instance, if the company uses a mobile app for reporting purposes, all employees must receive proper training on how to do it.

It’s also important for employers to review processes and to remove friction from the process as much as possible, thus making it easy for employees to report incidents quickly.

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Using AI Safety Tools

One of the best ways to improve real time incident reporting is to use AI monitoring tools. AI workplace safety solutions integrate directly with CCTV camera systems, allowing companies greater visibility into various incidents. 

In case a safety event occurs, the AI tool automatically captures it and sends alerts to designated personnel. The safety rules can be customized, so the AI safety monitoring tool can capture events of varying risk levels.

AI monitoring tools are by far the most effective way of capturing safety incidents and gathering real time incident reports. The tool can be used for conducting safety audits, which in turn help improve the effectiveness of safety decisions in the workplace.

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Use Protex AI to Improve Incident Reporting in the Workplace

Protex AI is one of the best workplace safety solutions that companies can use for real time incident reporting. It plugs in seamlessly with existing CCTV networks, offering greater insights to companies and helping safety teams make effective decisions.

Protex AI records unsafe events, making it easy for safety teams to review video evidence later on and prepare actionable plans to improve safety.

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